This past Sunday I began my last pack of birth control. Life is getting pretty exciting!

 

Some updates:

 

We’re in the middle of trying to confirm vacation plans for next summer, which is when we are planning to tell our families. I know for sure that my family is in, now I’m just waiting for David’s family to make a decision.

 

We’ve also been given our first piece of baby gear. Amanda and Daniel have offered us Devon’s swing, which he has outgrown. We will be picking it up at Christmas!

 

This whole thing has become a tad bit more real for me, and once I’m over being sick, I plan to kick it into high gear with my workouts. I know that having a pre-established workout routine will be very beneficial during pregnancy and am hoping that I can get something fully set up before I get pregnant. I know that next year my work schedule will be changing, so hopefully by scaling back, or quitting altogether, I will be able to get into the habit of exercising 3-5 times a week.

 

The diet change has been going well. We’ve both been eating more fruits and veggies, and I think David might even be starting to like them. We shared an apple the other day, and he ate his half with no complaints and before I finished mine. I think its getting more real for him to. He knows that now is about the time he’s making what I need to make a baby, so I think he’s been trying to be a little healthier.

 

I have been trying my best to avoid taking any extra medication, just so I can get used to what its like. I’ve been sick for about 24 hours, but all I’ve had to help is tea and soup. I haven’t been taking anything when I get headaches, and luckily they’ve all been mild enough. If I did get a bad one, I would of course take something, but I’m trying to get less dependent upon them.

 

 

Only 26 more pills!

There is now just under 7 weeks until I stop taking my birth control.

 

My main focus today has been checking all of the products we use in the bathroom at ewg.org. Most of the products we use, and especially the ones I use have bad ratings in terms of their toxicity and overall hazard. I’m having to replace my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face lotion, hand lotion and lip balm. David has to replace his shampoo, body wash, shaving cream and face lotion. We both have to replace our sunscreen (which I knew was a big possibility as sunscreens are highly absorbable).

 

I have been scouring ewg.org to find good products we can use, then checking Amazon to see if we can buy them. Man is this a process. I’ve found 5 replacement products so far. I have 6 left and they are the tough ones to replace. I’m especially concerned about the sunscreen. I need sunscreen, and as we spend some time in the sun due to our Disneyland APs its very important that I find a good one. Bleh.

 

Well, it took several hours but I have found replacements for everything that needs to be changed. Now to just order them and wait for them to arrive.

 

I am fully aware that all of this is not necessary. Plenty of people get pregnant without even thinking about the products they put on their skin. Plenty of people have healthy babies even if they use relatively unhealthy shampoos and conditioners. I, however, am not plenty of people. I want to be as healthy as possible to give my children the best possible environment to develop in. It may be overkill, but I don’t want to risk it.

We now have 8 weeks until our planned stop of hormonal birth control. We are both getting very excited, but at the same time nervous, about our impending life change. I am extremely anxious about the changes that I will have to go through. I finished my first pregnancy book last week and have been reading more of David’s, and to be honest neither of them are helping to put me at ease. I have a few more that I’m going to consider exploring, but for now I’ve decided that one book each is enough. I’ve been reading through the Amazon.com previews of some of the others I’m considering and am having a hard time deciding which I really want and which I would consider borrowing from the library. I’ve found myself drawn to articles on babble.com and thebump.com. Some of them are extremely fascinating to me.

 

I’m still debating how I want to break the news to our parents. Obviously by the time anyone reads this they’ll already know, so you may know how we did it. I’ve thought about giving them envelopes with the pregnancy test results or something like that. I’ve also thought about giving them a series of pictures with week numbers on them or maybe just one large photograph with several pictures. I had also thought about waiting until our summer vacation, inviting everyone to go camping, and sometime while we’re all together letting them know that we’re expecting.

 

I think we are still planning to keep it a secret until we’re already pregnant since they are all under the impression that we’re waiting an extra year or two (which we decided against). It’s been very tough so far. I’ve seen my parents once since we decided, and we will be seeing them again this next Saturday, then we will see David’s family for Thanksgiving. I know that a grandchild from us is something both our parents are looking forward to (and are maybe anxiously awaiting) and they may be slightly disappointed that its been kept secret from them, but we really want to surprise them in a big way.

 

I’ve told several people so far that we’re planning for a baby in the next 6ish months. Two of my coworkers know. One is a work friend who I’ve known for almost a year and feel very comfortable talking to. The second is a new person with whom I happened upon the subject. One of our cousins also knows (and is sworn to secrecy), but I won’t mention which one. Of course the people we spoke with at The Sanctuary know, and I’m sure Amazon can guess that we’re planning based on my purchase history and my private baby wishlist.

 

I think I’ve got most of our basic baby gear items picked out. I have yet to pick a crib because I’d like to wait until we go to Babies R Us to set up a registry. I’ve picked the “bassinet” we’ll have in our room for nighttime for the first bit. Car seats and matching stroller are picked. 3 different baby wearing carriers have been chosen. I’ve researched the different choices for cloth diapering and seen a how-to video from the company I’ve selected. I’ve also decided against bottles (for now at least) as I will be home and won’t need to prep baby for me going back to work. I’ve done about as much research as I’m going to on all these items and am going to stick with the ones I’ve picked out while I am of sound mind.

 

8 weeks! Yay!

Today I am researching questions to ask when we have our preconception appointment on Wednesday at… The Sanctuary… I have Kaiser and the option of doing everything through them at a relatively small out of pocket cost, but The Sanctuary offers birth center and home birth options.

One of the webpages I’m reading has user comments about questions to ask your midwife. Someone posted that because of where they live, they would have to give birth in the dirty “h” word. That perfectly describes how I feel about giving birth in a hospital. I don’t want to do it unless there is a dire emergency. I will do everything in my power to avoid having to give birth in a hospital. Yuck. I’m just really not a fan of how they want women to labor. I don’t want needles stuck in my arm and being told I have to lay in a bed for however long it takes. I want to be able to get up if I want. Or give birth standing up, or on my head, or in a bathtub or whatever else my heart desires.

So far I’ve been relatively good about remembering to take my prenatal vitamin and eating healthy. Exercise is still coming a bit slow, though hopefully I’ll be able to dedicate myself to it more in the coming weeks. We still have about 11 weeks until our planned stop of hormonal contraceptives and I’m really hoping to get fully into baby making shape by then. I’ll get more information on Wednesday as to what I need to focus on.

I’ve been reading some about what sort of things I’m going to have to give up once its time to start trying. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, face lotion, hand lotion, sunscreen, deli meat, canned foods, preservatives, food dye, anything that comes pre made in a box. The list is absurd. What does David have to give up? Maybe 1 or 2 HABITS. So far I’ve ordered Tide Free and Clear laundry detergent in the hopes that its going to be okay to use while pregnant and for the 6-? months that I plan to breastfeed. I’m going to be asking what I should buy to replace all of my beauty items. Guess I’ll just have to get used to preparing real food for every single meal. 840 meals just for 40 weeks of pregnancy. That’s a lot of “nothing from a box, can or restaurant” food.

Today I am researching questions to ask when we have our preconception appointment on Wednesday at… The Sanctuary… I have Kaiser and the option of doing everything through them at a relatively small out of pocket cost, but The Sanctuary offers birth center and home birth options.

 

One of the webpages I’m reading has user comments about questions to ask your midwife. Someone posted that because of where they live, the would have to give birth in the dirty “h” word. That perfectly describes how I feel about giving birth in a hospital. I don’t want to do it unless there is a dire emergency. I will do everything in my power to avoid having to give birth in a hospital. Yuck. I’m just really not a fan of how they want women to labor. I don’t want needles stuck in my arm and being told I have to lay in a bed for however long it takes. I want to be able to get up if I want. Or give birth standing up, or on my head, or in a bathtub or whatever else my heart desires.

 

So far I’ve been relatively good about remembering to take my prenatal vitamin and eating healthy. Exercise is still coming a bit slow, though hopefully I’ll be able to dedicate myself to it more in the coming weeks. We still have about 11 weeks until our planned stop of hormonal contraceptives and I’m really hoping to get fully into baby making shape by then. I’ll get more information on Wednesday as to what I need to focus on.
I’ve been reading some about what sort of things I’m going to have to give up once its time to start trying. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, face lotion, hand lotion, sunscreen, deli meat, canned foods, preservatives, food dye, anything that comes pre made in a box. The list is absurd. What does David have to give up? Maybe 1 or 2 HABITS. So far I’ve ordered Tide Free and Clear laundry detergent in the hopes that its going to be okay to use while pregnant and for the 6-? months that I plan to breastfeed. I’m going to be asking what I should buy to replace all of my beauty items. Guess I’ll just have to get used to preparing real food for every single meal. 840 meals just for 40 weeks of pregnancy. That’s a lot of “nothing from a box, can or restaurant” food.